Server Upgrade

We are happy to inform you that we have just performed a server upgrade a couple of days ago. Now the vbtutor.net server is running at a higher bandwidth, and all the pages should be loading at a faster rate now. So please take more time to browse through our website, who knows you might discover something that would help you greatly. For students who are taking VB as a subject, the website is a great resource for you; and for the programmers, you would also find some interesting programs here to help in your projects. Please also ask your friends to visit this website so that more people will benefit from the tutorial. And you can also encourage your friends to pick up VB programming.

Happy learning.

Simple Slot Machine

Slot machine is a game of chance. It can be created quite easily in Visual Basic. I have created a simple slot machine in VB, though it is no where near the actual slot machine, it is a simulation o a slot machine. In this program, I inserted an array of shapes and change their appearance as well as color using the properties of the shape control. And I use the Rnd function to randomize the process. So when the user press the play button, different combination of shapes will appear, something like a slot machine. Off course you can add many features like amount of bets and amount the player wins, but I will leave that to you. Maybe somebody can come out with a sophisticated slot machine and share with us here.

View the following link for the simple slot machine.

SIMPLE SLOT MACHINE

Adding Menus to Your VB Application

Most windows programs provide menu bar for easy navigation and control. The most common items are like File, Edit, View, Tools, Help and more. Each item on the main menu bar also provide a list of options in the form of a pull-down menu.

Adding menu bar is easily accomplished in Visual Basic. To start adding menu items to your application, open your file and then click on Tools in the menu bar of the Visual Basic IDE, then select Menu Editor. When you click on the Menu Editor, the following window will appear. In the Menu Editor, key in the items such as File, Edit, View and etc. The & sign will be the shortcut to initiate the action under this item by pressing the Alt key and the letter shown after the & sign. The letter will be underlined. Below are the diagrams:


More details will be discussed in future posts.

New Lesson: Handling Graphics in Visual Basic 6

Graphics is a very important part of visual basic programming as an attractive interface will be appealing to the users. In the old BASIC, drawing and designing graphics are considered as difficult jobs, as they have to be programmed line by line in a text-based environment. However, in Visual Basic, these jobs have been made easy. There are four basic controls in VB that you can use to draw graphics on your form: the line control, the shape control, the image box and the picture box.

Please learn more about graphics in our newest lesson by clicking the link below:

http://www.vbtutor.net/lesson18.html

Reorganization of vbtutor content page

We have had a major reorganization of the vbtutor content page. We have also corrected some errors and bad links. Now it is easier to navigate. Log on to

http://www.vbtutor.net/vbtutor.html

to see the changes.

Compiling and Distributing Your VB Programs

Once your have completed a VB program, you can compile the program to run as a standalone windows application, without having to launch the Visual Basic IDE. However, before you compile your program, you have to debug your program to make sure it is errors free. Once the program is compiled into an EXE file (executable file), you can not debug it anymore. If you wish to do so, you have to correct the errors and recompile it.

Other than that, you might want to market your product, either online or offline. This means that you need to create a package that can be distributed to your potential customers. The package created can be distributed using CD ROM, diskette or the Internet. The package will allow the user to install the program to install in the computer with the standard setup routine.

Learn how to compile and distribute your VB programs in our new lesson at:

http://www.vbtutor.net/lesson29.html

Merry Chritsmas

Merry Christmas to everybody, particularly to our Christian friends! Even if you are not a Christian, I'm sure you still would like to have fun in this festive season.

This year seems to be a particularly cold year, with many places in North America, Europe and East Asia experiencing sub -zero degree temperature, some places even dipped below -20 degree Celsius. I have a daughter who is studying at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, and she has hard time adjusting to the severe temperature. She is staying there for winter break and it would take one day for her to fly home across the Pacific Ocean.

For those VB friends who are experiencing severe weather, I hope you can take good care of yourself and your loved ones. And since you will spend more time indoor, why not learn more about VB programming?

Wish everybody good luck and have a great festival!